In the coming years, the gas network in Germany will be converted from L-gas to H-gas across the board. The gas network operators in Central Hesse recently agreed on a corresponding timetable.
Less and less natural gas is flowing from German deposits, and the Netherlands also intends to significantly reduce its production from 2020. Fuel from alternative sources - including Norway and Russia - will replace the volumes that are lost. However, this is mostly so-called high-calorific H-gas, in contrast to the low-calorific L-gas from Germany or the Netherlands. The higher energy content requires the gas network to be adapted across the board.
In Central Hesse, gas appliances and gas systems in around 170,000 households will have to be converted - a challenging large-scale project that is expected to start in 2019. Mittelhessen Netz GmbH - a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Gießen AG - and 14 other network operators and 16 industrial companies from the region adopted the corresponding timetable in Wetzlar on 9 November. All 31 partners have a direct connection to the gas transport network of the transmission system operator Open Grid Europe (OGE).
Close cooperation required
The necessary work on the gas network in Central Hesse is expected to take place in 2019 and 2020. All affected customers will receive detailed written information from their responsible network operator in advance. In the case of private households and commercial enterprises, the network operators generally bear the investment and include it in the network costs via a levy. High-calorific H-gas will then flow through the pipelines in two stages - from 2019 and 2021 respectively.
Frank Hoffmann, Managing Director of Mittelhessen Netz GmbH, expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the joint planning after the negotiations in Wetzlar: "The necessary conversion of the gas quality is a challenging task for the German gas industry that can only be accomplished with the close cooperation of all gas network operators involved. With the signing of the joint action plan, we have solved this task for the Central Hesse region in an outstanding manner and thus sent a clear signal for successful cooperation on a trusting basis for the future."
More information on the changeover can be found on the Internet. The Association of Transmission System Operators will soon be providing a detailed overview of the changeover dates at
www.fnb-gas.de.